During the months of February and March, we banded 5 times with the last banding session of the season occurring on 30 March. Yellow-rumped Warbler numbers continued to be very high throughout the first half of February but after that their numbers dropped off dramatically. The site hosted a large population of Yellow-rumped Warblers from October 2022 through mid-February 2023. After our 19 February banding session, I noticed that the wax myrtle berries were depleted throughout the site giving good reason for the relative decrease in Yellow-rumped Warbler for the second half of the season.
February 7
The morning started off cool with little wind and warmed up to the upper 60s by the time we closed down nets for the day. It was another busy day with a total of 211 new birds and 73 recaptures of 12 different species. Per usual, Yellow-rumped Warblers were everywhere and made up 89% of the total catch. The highlight of the day was a Red-winged Blackbird. Red-winged Blackbirds are very common in the area but they are seldom ever captured in our nets.
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| Red-winged Blackbird |
February 19
Bird numbers dropped significantly compared to the previous 4 sessions with only 67 new birds and 75 recaptures of 8 different species. As I mentioned above, the wax myrtle berry crop had been depleted and many of the Yellow-rumped Warblers had moved on to new areas.
March 1
The first banding session of March only yielded 18 new birds and 19 recaptures of 6 different species. This is a huge difference from just a few weeks ago when we captured nearly 300 birds. The Carolina jessamine was in full bloom and the sweet aroma filled the banding station.
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| Carolina Jessamine |
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| Cedar Waxwing |
| Species | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New | Recaps | New | Recaps | |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | 1 | - | - |
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | 2 | - | - | - |
Downy Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | - | - |
White-eyed Vireo | 2 | 3 | - | - |
House Wren | - | 5 | - | - |
Carolina Wren | 1 | 1 | - | - |
Carolina Chickadee | - | 2 | - | - |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | - | 19 | - | - |
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | - | 2 | - | - |
Eastern Bluebird | 4 | - | - | - |
Hermit Thrush | 1 | 15 | - | - |
American Robin | 43 | - | - | - |
Gray Catbird | 6 | 41 | - | - |
Brown Thrasher | 1 | 3 | - | - |
Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 2 | - | - |
Cedar Waxwing | 5 | - | - | - |
Eastern Towhee | 2 | 2 | - | - |
Song Sparrow | 5 | 17 | - | - |
Lincoln's Sparrow | 1 | - | - | - |
Swamp Sparrow | 6 | 14 | - | - |
White-throated Sparrow | 2 | - | - | - |
Red-winged Blackbird | 1 | - | - | - |
Ovenbird | - | 2 | - | - |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 2 | 6 | - | - |
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | - | - | - |
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) | 876 | 271 | - | - |
Northern Cardinal | 4 | 8 | - | - |
| 2023 Cumulative Winter Banding Stats | Captain Sam's | Little Bear | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| # Birds Banded | 968 | - | - |
| # of Recaptures | 416 | - | - |
| # of Species | 27 | - | - |
| Effort (net-hours) | 1,656.2 | - | - |
| Capture Rate (birds/100 net-hours) | 83.6 | - | - |
| # of Nets | 31 | - | - |
